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Patrick Olivelle

Professor Emeritus
— Ph.D.,
University of Pennsylvania

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Biography

Patrick Olivelle served as the Chair of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin from 1994 to 2007, where he is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions. Prior to coming to Texas, Olivelle taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, from 1974 to 1991, where he was the Department Chair 1984-90.

Olivelle's current research focuses on the ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmaśāstra. He has edited and translated the four early Dharmasūtras. He has also prepared a critical edition of the Law Code of Manu (Mānava Dharmaśāstra). A new translation based on the critically edited text was published in Spring 2004 in the Oxford World's Classics series and the critical edition was published in 2005.

In the mid-1990's Olivelle worked on the late Vedic literature, producing an award-winning translation of the early Upaniṣads, as well as a scholar's edition of them. His early work was focused on the ascetic and monastic traditions of India. He published several editions, translations, and studies of ascetic texts and institutions. His award-winning book on the āśrama system was published in 1993.

Olivelle has won several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, NEH, and ACLS. He was elected Vice President of the American Oriental Society in 2004 and President in 2005.

Article: 2009. "The Living and the Dead: Ideology and Social Dynamics of Ancestral Commemoration inIndia." In H. L. Seneviratne (ed.), The Anthropologist and the Native: Essays for Gananath Obeyesekere, pp. 65-74. Florence: Societa Editrice Fiorentina.

Article: 2006. "The Ascetic and the Domestic in Brahmanical Religiosity." In O. Freiberger (Ed.), Critics of Asceticism: Historical Accounts and Comparative Perspectives, pp.25-42. New York: Oxford University Press.

Article: 2006. "The Beast and the Ascetic: The Wild in the Indian Religious Imagination." In Patrick Olivelle, Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions. Florence: University of Florence Press, pp. 91-100.

Book: 2005. Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava-Dharmasastra. New York: Oxford University Press.1131 pages.

Article: 2005."Rebirth and Karma in Cross-Cultural Context." Gananath Obeyesekere Volume. In The Midweek Magazine of THE ISLAND. Wednesday 2, February 2005

Article: 2005. "Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma." In Language, Texts, and Society: Explorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion, pp. 120-135.Florence: University of Florence Press, 2005.

Article: 2004. "The Semantic History of Dharma The Middle and Late Vedic Periods." In Dharma: Studies in Its Semantic, Cultural, and Religious History, ed. Patrick Olivelle. Special issue of Journal of Indian Philosophy 32: 491–511.

Article: 1998. "Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions." In A. Hiltebeitel & B.D. Miller (Eds.), Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures, pp.11-49. New York: State University of New York Press.

Article. 1991. "From Feast to Fast: Food and the Indian Ascetic." In J. Leslie (Ed.), Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law (Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference Vol. 9), pp.17-36. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Book on ancient Indian social construction of the body, tentatively entitled Images of the Body, Visions of Society : Religion and Body in Ancient India.

Critical Edition of the Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra.

INVITED LECTURES

Select list of institutions: Oxford University, University of Vienna, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, University of Virginia, UC-Santa Barbara, UCLA, Stanford, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, University of Western Michigan, University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina-Ashville, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, McMaster University, University of Hamburg, University of Gottingen, University of Halle/Wittenburg, University of Warsaw, University of Torino, University of Rome, University of Colombo (Sri Lanka), University of British Columbia, University of Peking, University of Kunmin, University of Chengdu, University of Pune (India), University of Cardiff (U.K.), University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Sydney, Australian National University, University of Melbourne.

MAJOR ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE

University of Texas

Department

Chair, Department of Asian Studies, 1994-2007

South Asia Institute, Interim Director, 2003-04

Director, Center for Asian Studies, 1994-2000

University

Faculty Council, 2006-2007.

College of Liberal Arts, Tenure and Promotions Committee, 1991-93.

Committee to Reorganize the Department of Oriental and African Studies, 1993.

Indiana University

Department of Religious Studies

Chair, 1984-90.

Acting Chair, 1980-81.

University

College of Arts and Sciences, Committee to Revise the Undergraduate Curriculum, 1989-90.